Southern California Wedding Photographer - John Riedy

The Fairmont Hotel
October 18, 2008

As I mentioned in my post below, one of the great things about being a wedding photographer is that, invariably, no two weddings are the same. I think I can safely say that Becky and Bryce’s wedding this weekend in San Francisco will never be duplicated. First, there’s the locations. I’ve never shot at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco before and if I ever do again, chances are I WON’T have access to the Penthouse like we did this weekend. Holy cr@p that is the coolest place ever. Rumor is that every president in the modern era except “W” has stayed there. I could swear I saw “BC -n- ML forever” carved into the cigar box. The temple where the ceremony took place was also unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The lighting fixtures were SOOOO cool, including some actual gas powered candeliers. The place seemed like a cross between an old theatre, and a circus tent, but in a good way. The last thing that HOPEFULLY guarantees that this wedding will never be duplicated is that I remember only one other wedding where I was this sick while shooting. I’m now a few days into anti-biotics and feeling much better, but MAN o’ MAN did I feel like I was going to die at the wedding. Sunday when I got home I went to bed at 4:30pm and woke up at 8:30am

The funny thing about shooting sick is that both times I’ve done it, the other was at Bocara Resort in Santa Barbara, I ended up with some of the best wedding images I think I’ve ever made. Both times it didn’t hurt that I had a LOT to work with (Becky and Bryce were both VERY photogenic), but I think when I’m sick I force myself to work harder and probably overshoot to cover my butt. Either way, I’m really happy with the results of my work. I hope you enjoy them as well. Here’s a sneak peak…

St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Church
The Marriott Marina Del Rey
October 4, 2008

Aside from my family, my two passions in life are golf and wedding photography.  What’s interesting is that if you think about it, a couple of big reasons I love golf and wedding photography are VERY similar.  In golf (unlike most other sports), every course is different and most are set upon a gorgeous piece of land (see my post below about Pebble Beach).  And even if you play the same course frequently, it never plays the same.  Weddings are the same in that they are all SOOOO different and most venues that I get to photograph are also incredibly beautiful.  And even if you shoot at a similar wedding venue frequently (ie. the Hotel Del Coronado), it changes each time you’re there… from the lighting, to the flowers, to the people.  No two weddings are alike.

This week I shot at two venues that I’ve photographed before and I guarantee you, the photos look NOTHING alike.  St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Church is a spectacular cathedral-like church that is so ornate and laden with gold that it kind of takes your breath away.  Greek orthodox services are also one of my favorites to photograph.  First, because there’s so much going on.  More importantly, though, I love them because everything happens THREE times!!!  You get three shots at everything.  Not only is this a nice safety net, but allows you to try different lenses and angles on the same event.  Sweet!  Oh, and one last thing I love about St. Sophia’s is the church coordinator.  He looks JUST like Joe Pesci!  And if you try to take out a strobe for the formals, there’s a good chance he’ll show you his Pesci in the movie Casino imitation.  Yikes!

The reception took place at the Marriott in Marina Del Rey.  I shot here probably five or six years ago and boy has this place changed.  The lobby and lobby bar (Glow Lounge) are totally new and made a great place to shoot Julie and Matt’s “formals” and the bridal party as well.  The ballroom is on the very top of the hotel and provides unbelievable views of all of LA.  The helipad up there made a great location for Julie and Matt’s first look and the family formals.

I almost forgot to mention the band… THE BAND!!!  DANG, they ROCKED!!!  I don’t think I’ve ever worked with Rembrandt before, but they were so freakin’ good!  They had like 12 or 14 members on stage and at least six of them sang lead at one point or another.  I can’t remember hearing a band that sounds SOOOO much like the songs they’re covering.  Their website could stand some updating, but trust me, their music is phenomenal.  The best part is, they’re CHEAP!  Okay, maybe not cheap, but relative to some other bands out there, they really are a great value.

Last, I just want to say what a pleasure Julie and Matt were to work with.  Man, they were just up for anything.  We had a fantastic time and I think it shines through in the images.  Enjoy…

You only turn six once, they say, and Cole Riedy decided to make the most of it. We started with a family celebration at his FAVORITE Halloween restaurant in La Jolla… Barbarella (ooh, scary!). This restaurant decorates each Halloween season with at least 500 different decorations. You’ve never seen anything quite like it. We then spread the celebration out over several days culminating in the coup de grace GODZILLA party at our home (thank GOD we’ve moved on from the Dora, Thomas, Wiggles, Barney, etc. phase!).

I have to say, Becky Riedy went to TOWN on this one. There were no bouncy houses, no face painters, no magicians… nothing but good homegrown fun. The smartest thing she did was to hire three of our neighborhood teenage girls to help run the various activities (and, oh baby, were there activities!). We started with general pandemonium. You’ve gotta let them burn off a little steam before trying to corral them. Next was bobbing for apples. Cole was first and went after it like the Zilla going after Biollante, Destroyah, MechaGodzilla, and King Ghidorah… all at once! Jack, on the other hand, took a slightly less aggressive (and drier) approach. Cheeky monkey! Once they had procured their apples from the tub, it was on to the Candy Apple Decoration Station. Oh, did this part get MESSY! Next, they all decorated their very own party bags.  After that was “Pin the Tail on Godzilla”.   Cole was first and NAILED it!

The CAKE… OMG, the cake.  This thing was a labor of love and a work of art.  You HAVE to look at it below.  Becky made the most amazing Godzilla cake.  It’s Godzilla’s foot stomping on a road, cars, trees, people, etc.  Classic.  The interior was red velvet cake, so it was delicious as it was bloody looking.  Yummmmmm.  I swear Becky could go into business doing this.  She worked SOOO hard on Cole’s party, I can’t even describe it.

After the cake we had a cake walk, only instead of giving the kids cakes, they got to pick out a book.  How freakin’ cool is that???  They LOVED it.  Last, we had an egg hunt.  No, not some namby pamby Easter egg hunt.  These were GODZILLA EGGS!!!  Becky actually made (with a little help from yours truly) Godzilla eggs out of paper mache wrapped balloons and filled them with a bit of candy and then spray painted them green.  The kids had SOOOO much fun tearing into these.  It was kind of hard to watch when you knew that those took about 8 hours to make.  Ugh.  All in all it was a fantastic party.  I hope I keep this blog going so that Cole can look back on it someday and remember how much fun it was.  Enjoy the photos…

Even San Diego Wedding Photographers Deserve a Vacation Sometimes

For those of you who have stalked my blog for a while now, you might remember my post from last summer about my trip with my dad to “Mecca”, otherwise known as St. Andrew’s Scotland. Last week we experienced the round two of our golfing journey as we played Spyglass Hill, Pebble Beach Golf Links, and the Links at Spanish Bay. That puts us as having played seven of the top 100 golf courses in the world according to golf.com. Woohoo! We stayed at the Lodge at Pebble Beach, where I’ve shot two weddings in the past. I must say it’s WAAAAY more fun being there as a guest than as a wedding photographer. Still, I’d shoot there again in a heartbeat. Even as a guest I found myself walking around the property looking for good portrait locations. I need to get a life.

I guess it goes without saying that the golf was spectacular (the courses, that is, not the golf being played). Many people told me that Spyglass should be my favorite, but I have to say that, for me, it didn’t come close to Pebble. There’s just something about Pebble that you can’t understand until you play it. Like St. Andrews, it’s just special. I’d played Spanish Bay before and while it’s certainly a very good golf course, it just isn’t on the same level as the other two. More than anything, I enjoyed the time with my dad. That’s really what these trips are all about. I hope someday I can do the same with my boys. Thanks again, dad.

I hope you enjoy some of the photos from our trip…

There were deer everywhere you looked. This was the driving range at Spyglass Hill…

Me and dad on the first tee at Spyglass Hill…

The approach to the first green at Spyglass Hill. It’s a long downhill par 5 dogleg left out to the ocean. My second shot ALMOST cleared the bunker and made the green. Almost. I made par, which was a very nice way to start the trip.

The third hole at Spyglass is a short par three that heads directly to the Pacific…

This is the approach to the par four fourth at Spyglass. I’m sorry, but this green is just kind of silly. I’ve never seen anything quite like it…

Here’s a closeup of the “green”…

A sweet little par three at Spyglass. After the first five holes, Spyglass turns inland through the Del Monte forest…

The Lodge at Pebble Beach has a cool program for guests where you can borrow a Lexus SC 300 convertible for two hours for free. We took ours and drove around 17 Mile Drive. At the beach next to Spanish Bay we found a beach with some very “Blair Witch Project” rock formations. None of these were there the day before and they were all gone the next day!

No “human” could stack rocks like this…

The light kind of sucked, but I still had to give the Lone Cypress shot a shot. I tried to spice it up a bit with the foreground framing…

Here we are on the first tee at Pebble Beach. Yes, I was nervous, but it was NOTHING like the first tee at St. Andrews where my legs were a gelatinous mass of nerves…

Here we are on the tee box of what may be the most famous par three in the world (okay, after number 12 at Augusta)…the seventh. Jack Nicklaus once said he’d hit everything from lob wedge to a one iron on this 100 yard hole. I hit sand wedge to about 8 feet. Sadly, it then spun back toward the front of the green to about 35 feet where I promptly three jacked. DOH!

The seventh hole from the tee box….

This is the approach shot view on the 8th hole at Pebble Beach. Nicklaus called this his favorites approach shot in golf. I can see why. What you can’t see in this photo is that you’re hitting completely over the Pacific Ocean.

This is the approach shot to the par four ninth. It’s a LONG 450+ yard hole. I bombed my drive to about 150 out. I then striped my second shot…right into the face of that huge bunker. Next, I hit a gorgeous little bunker shot that almost holed out and stopped about 7 feet past the hole. I sank the putt for a par. Hands down, those were the four best shots I hit the whole trip (yes, even the second shot in the bunker… it was two feet from perfection)…

Here’s dad teeing off on the famous 17th hole at Pebble Beach. This is the one where Watson holed out greenside for birdie against Nicklaus in 1982 and went on to win the US Open by two. I made a MESS of this hole…

These two are sort of self explanitory.

Here I am teeing off on the most famous finishing hole in the world (sorry for the camera shake…dad!)…

Dad on the same…

Our last morning at Pebble Beach we got up early to play Spanish Bay. It was a glorious day and I couldn’t pass up the chance to get some postcard shots of the 18th hole. Nothing Ansel-worthy here, but not awful either…

Oooh… moody!

One more for good measure…

Our final round, for now, at Spanish Bay Golf Links…

Did I mention it was a beautiful day! This was one of my two birdies at Spanish. Yeah, baby!

Here I am teeing off on 17 at Spanish Bay. You can’t quite believe how close you actually get to the water here…

Well, that’s about it. I hope you enjoyed my journey to Mecca Part II as much as I did (though I doubt that’s possible). Until Part III…